Colors danced behind my eyes, until the world fell into a haze of dark mist. Black fissures of power within arm's reach. Mine. Magic slammed into me, endless and vast like a tidal wave coming in and crushing over my head. I took it, absorbed it, glutted myself on it because it felt good. No consequences. No pain.

A jolt. A small hitch in the rhythmic beating of my heart. Dèjà vu didn't even begin to describe it. ... My heart stopped, my breath jostled forward, shock rippling through my system. It happened again. For a few precious seconds my mind froze up and, together with my body, went into a complete lockdown. It was the same each time I saw him.

Well, you could stare at a white wall until you were blue in the face, it would never be more than a white wall. The same was true for the master vampire. A vampire was a vampire was a vampire. Period. (Anna Johnson)

... for a moment I thought that everything was back to normal, that I was okay. But then it came crashing down on me. Blood was valuable. Blood was life. The loss of blood had a price. A high one.

They are born in the darkness, and they own it like no one else. Anna Johnson stays clear of vampires. She knows what they are capable of. As a witch of the air she is working for the Circle as a researcher, closing her eyes to that which lies in her past. Until one phone call changes everything.

Darius escaped Envy's reckoning with his life, but lost much in the process. Mortal and vulnerable, he seeks a new reason for his continued existence, and may have found it lurking below the mage city of Itheria. The Sins and their immutable control are broken. The streets are bloodied by Wrath's wayward children. Magic clashes. A winged harridan descends. The King Below threatens Terrestria with destruction. Darius's quest to find redemption will lead him into the void itself, where the former Sin of Pride will be forced to decide just what he is willing to sacrifice for a world he has long ignored and the blue-eyed woman he failed to save. __________________________ Sequel to Bereft: Demise. [ORIGINAL DRAFT ONLY]

This is the sequel to Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, the first book in the Weeping Willow High School series.

Sara Gaspard swore she'd do anything to find those responsible for her sister's death, but teaming up with the Sin of Pride is more than she bargained for. ***** Desperate and dying, Sara Gaspard promises her soul to the Sin of Pride if he'll find the madmen responsible for ruining her life, but they soon discover her wish is more complicated than expected. Together, Sara and Pride delve into a twisted world of insidious plots, occult fanaticism, and paranormal disaster as they search for answers and struggle to survive. As the danger in the city of Verweald rises, Sara and Pride must find the cult before the newest threat haunting the city's bloody streets claims them both. [[Book 1, the Bereft Series]] [[Writer's Debut Watty Award Winner]] [[Readers Choice Award]] [[Original Draft]]

Sara and Pride escaped Verweald's dangerous streets, but their quest to kill the Sin of Envy has just begun. In search of a way to end the immortal creature's life, Pride and the dying woman find refuge in the manor of Crow's End, where the residents harbor deadly, secretive histories, and the walls breathe with the memories of a madman as old as time. As their time draws short, Pride must manage an impossible feat no other Sin has accomplished before while Sara tries to survive the madness of Crow's End and come to grips with her own limited mortality. ---------------------------------- [[SEQUEL TO BEREFT]] [[ORIGINAL DRAFT]] [[ Highest Rank: #3 in Fantasy ]] [[Winner of the 2017 Fiction Awards (Best Fantasy Story)]] [[Winner of the 2017 Cryptic Awards (Best Dark Fantasy)]]

WATTYS 2016 WINNER Untouchable. Stone. Jewel - these are some of the names used for people who are born with a gemstone at the centre of their forehead. This unfortunate phenomenon cannot be detected before birth, it cannot be prevented, if a family has a Jewelled child, there is only one outcome: Before they're sixteen, they will have to leave human society forever and serve "the Zephyr". Among the Jewels there are those who have it worse. Those who sport clear diamonds on their foreheads, the Undefined. The downtrodden, the unlucky - the doomed. Cello Riles and Syianne Locke are both Undefined. On their sixteenth birthday, they each leave their homes and travel across the country to the Zephyr, attempting to go into service. Though aside from the place, or thing, that will take them from human society forever - what IS the Zephyr? There are only questions promised, only shadowy riddles guaranteed. Yet faced with no other choice they must venture forth and plunge into the unknown - the Zephyr. [A big thanks to @stpolishook for being a wonderful friend and helping me figure out how to write a better synopsis] COVER BY Abyss-of-Crazy